This invention relates generally to the field of process control, and more particularly to a method and system for dispatching semiconductor lots to manufacturing equipment for fabrication.
In a semiconductor manufacturing fabrication facility with a production-to-order type operation, control of many machines and various processes must be managed. There are always the major goals and tasks of providing short cycle times and precise delivery schedules for the purpose of satisfying expectations of customers. Difficulties encountered are a complex set of choices of process mix and of product mix, unscheduled machine down times and equipment arrangements. How to effectively schedule and dispatch lots has become a very important topic in handling manufacturing. Within each such fabrication facility, a scheduler typically drives a buffer of available lots to be processed. The buffer of available lots is typically fed to a dispatcher that allocates available lots to specific machines or processes.
In general, dispatch systems can be open loop or closed loop. Open loop dispatch systems make dispatch decisions without regard to the actual performance of the system and without regard to the dispatch decisions. Open loop dispatch systems rely solely on the open loop model of the process and assume that the process does what is expected of it. Closed loop dispatch systems make dispatch decisions and then feed back appropriate information to help improve future dispatch decisions. The closed loop dispatch systems learn, with feedback, what is occurring in the system and then changes the dispatch behavior based upon that information.
In accordance with the present invention, a method and system for dispatching semiconductor lots to manufacturing equipment for fabrication are provided that substantially reduce or eliminate disadvantages and problems associated with conventional lot dispatchers. More particularly, the dispatch system and method implements a closed-loop system that minimizes the influence of process and inventory disturbances and optimizes process performance.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for dispatching available lots to unallocated machines that includes receiving metrics data providing performance measurements for a plurality of machines. The method next provides for determining a state for each of the machines based on the metrics data. The method next provides for receiving one or more lots to be dispatched where each lot has a lot type and each lot type is associated with one of a plurality of models. The method next provides for selecting a preferred lot type for each of the plurality of models associated with each of the machines based on the state of the machine. The method next provides for selecting a preferred model based on a time since a last run of the model, a cost of switching to a new model and lot type, and the state of the machine. The method next provides for resolving conflicts between selected preferred lot types/preferred model combinations when insufficient lots are available to fill the selections. The method next provides for assigning each lot to one of the machines according to the preferred model and preferred lot type selections.
Technical advantages include providing an improved dispatch system for semiconductor manufacturing facilities. In particular, the dispatch system uses process performance information to dispatch available lots to available machines. As a result, process performance is optimized.
In addition, the dispatcher takes the cost of switching between processes into account in making dispatch decisions. The dispatch system assures adequate sampling of machines in the semiconductor fabrication facility that in turn provides for optimal machine, or process, performance.
Other technical advantages may be readily apparent to one skilled in the art in the following figures, description and claims.